ticketmaster and live nation merge in completely legal single firm

[FrankZappa]

my issue isn\'t the price they sell at and my ability to afford it.. much the same that I think there should be more than just facists and facists, I think you should have as diverse a setup as possible when it comes to anything, as I just don\'t like the potential of monopolies. I\'m all about breaking up the trusts because while what seth says is true and they can charge whatever they want, there needs to be a checks and balance set up. If you only have one company and they say hey, we\'re going to charge a 500% fee for you to purchase a ticket and that\'s the only place you can get tickets, you either need to decide not to go or suck it up. Do I feel entitled that I should be able to go to any show, any time? absolutely. Does it mean it will happen? nope. Furthermore, to each his own, but I don\'t scalp under any conditions. I\'ll resell rebuy tickets, but only at face.

I\'d rather miss a big show than scalp for it, and I hate that ticket agencies exist as legal companies. That\'s my checks and balance though. Try like hell to get it, if you can\'t, damn, you can\'t go, oh well. :shrug:

[Yoda]

I\'d rather miss a big show than scalp for it, and I hate that ticket agencies exist as legal companies. That\'s my checks and balance though. Try like hell to get it, if you can\'t, damn, you can\'t go, oh well. :shrug:

:that:

[tyzack]

I have no problem with the merger from a fan-access point of view; I am appauled at it, and at all the other mergers recently that are basically forming monopolies with the green light from the SEC.

[kindm's]

This is a bad idea for several reasons

Just like when Clear Channel controlled the venues and the radio etc etc. there were many many instances of them telling artists where they could and couldn\'t play. they would say sure you can play that venue but we won\'t book you in the sheds here here and here. They were using their HUGE influence in the market to dictate to artists etc who they could and couldn\'t do business with.

The samething is true for TM / LN. They have one of the largest artist management companies under their umbrella. They will also exclusively hold ticketing for these events, they also have multiple venues under their control

This is bad for business in general. They will continue to squeeze the smaller promoters right out of the business, they will control huge market share with no competition. This is bad for consumers as there will be no competition to drive costs down as well innovations.

I think the FTC is going to step in on this one. Especially after all the media attention with the Boss tickets. Schumer is getting in on the action as well.

This doesn\'t even touch the issue of a ticketing company that also owns the secondary market for ticket sales. They are double dipping. The easiest way for these companies to hedge their bets on tours will be the 2ndary market. Think of it this way. They have a really popular tour that is selling like gang busters but they also have a tour not doing so well. Well they will simply just divert more tickets to the 2ndary market as to recoup as much $$$ as possible to recover any potential losses. There is no cap on the 2ndary market, not only can they profit from the original sale of the ticket, they are also profiting on the fees associated with selling through their 2ndary market at the very least.

make a product, falsely create a shortage of said product, offer to charge a huge premium for the same product, profit.

[Gfunk]

exactly. ^^^  
Which people in congress should I contact to get maximum results?

[FrankZappa]

your congressman man/woman for the house and senate. you can write anyone you want, but the only people who will give two shits about what you think are the ones who represent your district.

[Wolfman]

I\'d rather miss a big show than scalp for it, and I hate that ticket agencies exist as legal companies. That\'s my checks and balance though. Try like hell to get it, if you can\'t, damn, you can\'t go, oh well. :shrug:

:that:

Never pay over face is a totally legit way to go.  I did that for years up until 2003.  I encourage anyone who is on this program to just consider the possibility that certain monumental events, even paying over face, might be a better value than an average event at face.

I have several examples, but for Paul\'s sake I\'ll go with Game 7 of the 2007 ALCS.  The face value of my seat in section 17 (good seat) was $125, I paid $200.  This game in this seat at $200 is one of the best values I\'ve ever gotten on a ticket.  The importance of the game needs no explanation and the gameplay itself was utterly riveting.  It was easily worth twice what I paid for it.  Now consider that the same seat at face value is $50 for all regular season games.  I don\'t consider this a great value going in.  Especially for your average home game, which is a sleepy weeknight affair against an average opponent like the Orioles.  Sure you might get lucky and something truly exciting like an Ortiz walkoff or Jon Lester pitching a no-hitter might happen, but chances are you won\'t witness anything that you\'ll remember a year or two later.  I don\'t think this seat is worth $50 for most regular season games.  But it sure as hell was worth $75 over face for a huge game.  

Of course, you might feel the total opposite, that the regular season ticket has fantastic value while the Game 7 ticket is hardly worth any more than the regular season ticket.  That\'s a totally valid opinion.  But all I can say is that ever since I dropped the never-pay-over-face paradigm and started very selectively choosing certain monumental events to pay over face for, I have been a much happier overall event-goer and I have no regrets about attending any of the events I chose.  I would do them all again!

[Yoda]

Of course, you might feel the total opposite, that the regular season ticket has fantastic value while the Game 7 ticket is hardly worth any more than the regular season ticket.

I agree and I disagree.  I definitely think that "a" game 7, not "this" game 7 (which I wouldn\'t pay more than a shit-stained piece of toilet paper) might be worth paying a little more, but I personally feel like the ticket price for the regular season should be the ticket price for the post season.  They are bleeding the fans.

[FrankZappa]

I found this interesting just now:

I get a weekly what\'s on sale email from ticketmaster for my area, and I laughted when I saw new kids on the block are on tour. Since pretty much EVERY woman I know my age was into them when they were popular I clicked on it just so I could forward the page as a link to some people.

simple enough.

the link that came off the email went directly to the "marketplace" tab which showed several groups of tickets ranging from $550 - $125 in price. Naturally, I assumed that this was the highway robery price a band such as this that tours once a decade is asking. But then I noticed that it was the Marketplace tab, and there was another "box office" tab next to it. So I clicked box office and sure enough, that was the normal page. Ah I said, they must be sold out, and that\'s why it brought me to the marketplace first.

But then I remembered who I was dealing with, so I searched for best available any price tickets.. and got middle of the floor front of soundboard for $50 each. These are better than some of the $500 "marketplace" tickets that the email link gave me.

point being, people like us that go to lots of shows and buy lots of tickets will notice this kind of thing and know how to move in the page to get real thing... But if someone wanted, say madonna at msg, or in this case nkotb at greatwoods and has not been to a concert in 10 years and saw a link like that they would have probably blindly bought the "best" tickets at $500 without knowing any better.

It\'s stuff like this that annoys the hell out of me about ticketmaster already, and I don\'t see a merger making get any better.

[tyzack]

I am constantly amazed at the fact that there are legitmate companies out there (Ace tickets in the boston area) whose entire business is ILLEGAL.

Since sclaping is illegal, putting those marketplace links seems to be encouraging criminal activities.

I don\'t think that the goverment would let budwiser send out adverstisement e-mails with links to people who sell pot.

[davepeck]

I am constantly amazed at the fact that there are legitmate companies out there (Ace tickets in the boston area) whose entire business is ILLEGAL.

Since sclaping is illegal, putting those marketplace links seems to be encouraging criminal activities.

I don\'t think that the goverment would let budwiser send out adverstisement e-mails with links to people who sell pot.

immoral != illegal.

laws vary from state to state, but most states don\'t give a shit.

[kindm's]

I am constantly amazed at the fact that there are legitmate companies out there (Ace tickets in the boston area) whose entire business is ILLEGAL.

Since sclaping is illegal, putting those marketplace links seems to be encouraging criminal activities.

I don\'t think that the goverment would let budwiser send out adverstisement e-mails with links to people who sell pot.

It isn\'t even illegal. The biggest rule around the tri-stae area regarding tickets is that the ticket agency cannot sell tickets to folks in the same state as the agency. Yes I know this is a weird rule but it is what it is. So what do these guys do ? well they simply set up "affiliate" companies in all of the states. Basically they will say oh your in NY, oh ok our CT agency will sell you tickets even tho in reality thay are the same company.

many states have also recently relaxed the scalping laws. Probably at the request of TM / LN as they stand to make the most $$$ from lax laws now that they have their ebay of tickets.

[Dyed_Tie]

I dunno, for me I\'d rather watch MLB on TV any day of the week.  I don\'t care how great of a game it is supposed to be.  You can\'t see anything at a MLB game unless you are at field level and in a game of inches it really is annoying not being able to see that.  I absolutely hate it when you are watching a game at home and there is a ball that is 3 inches out of the strike zone and the entire crowd is screaming like the umpire just maliciously stepped on a kitten.  You can\'t see it!  Where as i can see exactly what happened on the tube.  

Really the price of admission for a sporting event is so that if something crazy does happen you can say, "I was at that game!"  Yeah that\'s cool but usually you have to deal with traffic, rude people, and getting beer spilled on you.  I can experience that at any frat party.

Concerts on the other hand are different, but good venues are becoming few and far between as it is. I\'d rather go somewhere like Toad\'s than the effin\' Meadows or that armpit the Tweeter Center.  Best bet is like what Wolf said, check out bands that aren\'t packing stadiums and go for theatres and rock clubs.

[NickNels]

I love going to ball games.  Nothing better than getting out of work on Friday night and heading down to Shea.  Grab a dog, a beer, and a $10 ticket before going in and enjoy the game from anywhere in the upper deck.  For me it really doesn\'t get much better than that.  I\'m not really interested in the inches that determine balls and strikes as much as the atmosphere of just being at the game.  And playoffs...forget about it!

[Wolfman]

I love going to ball games.  Nothing better than getting out of work on Friday night and heading down to Shea.  Grab a dog, a beer, and a $10 ticket before going in and enjoy the game from anywhere in the upper deck.  For me it really doesn\'t get much better than that.  I\'m not really interested in the inches that determine balls and strikes as much as the atmosphere of just being at the game.  

I totally agree.   What you describe is nice if you can get it.  I love walking into Coors Field in Denver and getting a seat in the rockpile for $3 and just drinking and having a good time.  If you can do the walk-up-and-pay-wicked-cheap thing at Shea too, great.  It\'s a good time with friends and the game is secondary.  The ticket is a breeze to get and it\'s cheap so the value is there.  But it doesn\'t work like this in Boston.  The cheapest ticket at Fenway is standing room for $25 and you can\'t even see half the field and you\'re crammed into a small area standing up the whole game.  And this doesn\'t even matter because they\'re all sold out and selling for $40 on the secondary market.  If you are lucky enough to be able to get a face value ticket, you\'re looking at $36 for bleachers, or $50-$125 for anything decent, then $7.50 a beer.  The value isn\'t there, at least not to me.  And if you get shut out when the tickets go on sale as most people do, you can double those prices and now you\'re really looking at some sorry value.  But the key is, I don\'t get upset about it.  I just choose not to go and accept that Red Sox tickets are mostly for the rich and connected and I am neither.  Besides, to me this is just what it costs to have a good team, and i like having a good team.  If I lived in Arlington or Seattle or San Diego or Denver or Baltimore or whatever, then I could walk up any time I want and get a cheap ticket and have a good time socializing and barely watching a lousy baseball game.  I don\'t get that option here.  Oh well.